1940s stock footage - learning how to swim 3

sand crawling on the back is recommended for those who have difficulty in changing over to thrusting with the top of the foot instead of the so see how Betsy digs the tops of her toes into the sand and pushes backward then as she gains momentum and can no longer touch bottom she keeps right on with the same technique kicking against the water The Beginner's arm stroke on the back is entirely different from that done on the front here instead of reaching and pulling you merely press backward against the water with little short stroking movements of the hands this is known as Finning because it is like the action of fish's fins combining the arms and legs is simply a matter of developing a rhythm of the leg stroke then adding the arms and fitting the two together here you do not have to worry about the breathing because the face is always carried above the surface of the water the first safety skill you should acquire before venturing any further is learning how to change your direction in the Water swimming a human stroke toward Bob bubbles demonstrates how easy this is to accomplish mely by extending the arm and turning the head in the direction you would like to go now Betsy under the watchful eyes of the instructor Ventures for the first time into deep water she turns around and swims back using the same stroke that bubbles did when she showed you how to turn in shallow water actually the technique is the same sliding on her forward arm bubble rolls over picks up the back stroke and keeps right on going now to go from Back to Front sliding on an arm she rolls over and continues without missing a stroke it does no good to be able to swim on the front and on the back unless you you can get from one position to another now Betsy demonstrates how all of these safety skills are useful in deep water she starts swimming outward decides to turn around and swim back halfway back she decides to turn over then turns on to the front again and continues into shallow water another safety skill that a beginner must learn is how to level off from an upright to a swimming position see how important this skill is for safety bubbles is swimming into deep water she lets her feet down and finds she can't touch bottom instead of becoming panicky she swims her way right back to a horizontal position and takes several more Strokes to reach a place where she can stand that's what you call leveling off in deep water the first simple diving skill to be learned is how to jump in feet foremost come up level off and swim Bob explains how a porpus dive is made and demonstrates his point see now how Betsy holds her arms and hands in front of her head a corpus dive is your first head foremost dive let's watch more closely as they do this again go down head foremost then lift the head come back to the surface arms extended this makes for control and Wards off any object that might be in the water now Bob shows Betsy the steps by which you learn to dive head foremost from a position above the surface without smacking yourself against the water first try sitting on the edge of the float or [Music] pool then tip forward into the water the next step is to kneel and tip forward into the dive now standing with one foot back you tip forward now with both feet parallel she crouches pushes with the feet and springs into the dive rather than falls into it finally with feet parallel she uses an arm swing and does a fully coordinated dive and so our three little girls have taken you through the basic steps of learning how to swim and dive just as they once learned if they can do it so can you you'll really enjoy it once you try come on in the waterers fine remember swim in a safe place swim under competent supervision continue to practice get further instruction become highly skilled the